Intentional Foul
 

Anyone ever called an intentional foul because the contact was not a legitimate attempt to play the ball/player specifically designed to keep the clock from starting? If so, what were the circumstances? Thanks in advance

I called an intentional foul in a camp game for pushing a player from behind under,"not attempting to play the ball" and "neutralizing an obvious advantageous position".

Fast break; grab the jersey from behind.

Defender on the losing team trying to foul late in the game bear hugs the offensive player during a throw-in.

Intentional Fouls ...
 

Probably 99% of the intentional fouls that I've charged over forty years involve one of the situations below.

If there’s no play on the ball, if the defense grabs the jersey, pushes from behind, or bear hugs the offensive player, I always consider an intentional foul. Also: Excessive contact, and contacting the inbounder.

Yes, a few times.

Peace

Ancient Times ...
 

Back when I was coaching middle school basketball in the late 1970's, if a coach was yelling, "Foul him", in late game, need to come from behind, clock running down, stop the clock situations, an intentional foul was pretty much automatic.

I was advised by a highly respected basketball official teacher-colleague to come up with a "code word" for such situations. My "code word" was, "Steal the ball", when my players heard that they knew to foul to stop the clock, and I taught them to just "reach in" and make arm contact rather than grabbing a jersey, pushing from behind, or bear hugging an opponent.

Of course that was ancient history and now the NFHS recognizes late game tactical fouls as a legitimate part of the game, and changed the rule to allow coaches to "coach".

Most recent one, last week, two hand shove from behind on a driving player towards the end of the game. A few horse collars where the offender was just trying to grab the player from behind as they went by. One of those the girl got grabbed by her ponytail. Offending teams coach was flabbergasted that I ruled it an INT.

You'd think coaches would teach players how to do the foulathon thing to make sure the foul gets called and they don't get hit with an INT. It can get comical and dangerous when the FOUL FOUL FOUL screams comes out from the coach.

Big Bucks ...
 

Agree. Sometimes the defensive player is too "shy" to "reach in" and make real contact (and sometimes they're too aggressive).

When a team, ahead late in the game, wants to just play "keep away" and doesn't want to shoot free throws, this can make difficult decisions for officials on "touch" contact that we would normally ignore as incidental earlier in the game.

To call a "touch" foul in this situation (that we would not have called earlier in the game) would give an advantage not intended by rule to the team behind.

When the team ahead is willing to just take the free throws, we can call the "touch" foul immediately when contact occurs so the ball handler doesn't get hit harder to draw a whistle (creating end of game game management problems).

Officials also have to give the defense a chance to steal the ball before a quick whistle on contact.

In situations like this, if I'm near the losing team coming out of their huddle after timeout, I'll remind then to, "Go for the ball".

This is why basketball officials get paid the big bucks.

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